Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

TODAY – Walmart to stop accepting Visa in Thunder Bay, Ontario stores at CBC. “We are moving ahead as planned regarding our decision to stop accepting Visa at our three Thunder Bay stores on Monday, July 18,” said Alex Roberton, senior director, corporate affairs, at Walmart Canada. “We will then roll out the change in phases across Canada,” he added.”Read more

AMAZON TOUR PICS – Tours give a look-see inside Amazon’s campus by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times. “Demand has been brisk: As the word spread since the program began this month, tours were booked through October on the online booking site. But there’s an online waiting list if any spots open up. The company won’t offer the tours in the winter months because of the weather.”See the 10 pics / Read more

Citi CEO Says He’s Focused on Fixing Costco Credit-Card Woes by Dakin Campbell at Bloomberg. “We experienced extremely high calling volumes in the early implementation of it,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat said..“Questions around card activation, questions around statements, questions around where to send payments, and so we’re working through that. We’re gaining on it. We’re very focused on it.”Read more

U.S. and Chinese labor groups collaborated before China Wal-Mart strikes by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “They asked for our support,” said Cantare Davunt, OUR Wal-Mart’s leader from Minnesota, who participated in the Skype call…”We can use this to collectively press Wal-Mart on issues,” said Dan Schlademan, co-director of OUR Walmart.”Read more

Stores get personal to woo L.A. shoppers and keep them wanting more by Kavita Daswani at LA Times. “Saks, for example, introduced its mobile shopping service last year but only recently started promoting it in Los Angeles. A crew including a store stylist will come to you if you can’t make it into the Beverly Hills store or 12 other stores nationwide, including ones in New York and Florida.”Read more

Jeff Bezos scores role as an alien Starfleet official in blockbuster Star Trek Beyond by Liam Quinn at Daily Mail. “Producer J.J. Abrams laughed about Bezos’s silver screen appearance, saying: ‘You can’t keep people away… I saw it, I thought it was funny.’Read more

Sam’s Club operates unique lab in Bentonville store to test fresh sushi, seafood and other offerings by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “The demand for sushi in the Bentonville Club was so great that they started with two rice cookers and had to increase that to five in the first couple of weeks of opening in late May,” Harris said. He said FuiiSan employs 10 sushi chefs inside the Bentonville Club…”Read more

Overstock.com president Stormy Simon resigns by Tracy Maple at Internet Retailer. “Overstock.com Inc. president Stormy Simon has resigned, effective no later than July 25, to “pursue other opportunities” and will leave the board no later than Sept. 30.”Read more

Sears finds a new way to rake in cash, deliver Costco appliances by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “No one who works at a Costco wants a Sears guy delivering their stuff to their customers, so we rebranded the company,” said Cates, a former counterterrorism consultant who joined Innovel 18 months ago.”Read more

Massachusetts grocery stores innovating food waste disposal by Corin Cook at Metro West Daily News. “Almost two years ago, Massachusetts passed a commercial food-waste ban…Stop and Shop opened a green energy facility next to the company’s distribution center in Freetown, the second of its kind and the first of its kind on the East Coast…”Read more

123,000 Venezuelans cross border shopping for scarce food at AP. “It was the second weekend in a row that Venezuela’s socialist government opened the long-closed border with Colombia, and by 6 a.m. Sunday, a line of would-be shoppers snaked through the entire town of San Antonio del Tachira. Some had traveled in chartered buses from cities 10 hours away.” Read more

…Bloomberg: My Venezuela Nightmare: A 30-Day Hunt for Food in a Starving LandRead more